Michael Anthony Peroutka (born 1952) is an American
far-right politician, lawyer, and
neo-Confederate activist
from
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...
. He was the
Republican nominee for
Attorney General of Maryland in
2022, and was the
Constitution Party candidate for president in
2004.
Peroutka is a former member of the
League of the South, a
white supremacist and
white nationalist organization designated by the
Southern Poverty Law Center
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white ...
as a hate group.
Peroutka is known for his pro-
secessionist views, and has said that he is "still angry" that
Maryland did not join the Confederacy in the Civil War. Peroutka has voiced support for
disproven conspiracy theories about the
September 11 terrorist attacks, falsely claiming that the attacks were an "inside job" accomplished using explosives.
Peroutka attended
Loyola University Maryland
Loyola University Maryland is a private Jesuit university in Baltimore, Maryland. Established as Loyola College in Maryland by John Early and eight other members of the Society of Jesus in 1852, it is the ninth-oldest Jesuit college in t ...
and the
University of Baltimore School of Law
The University of Baltimore School of Law, or the UB School of Law, is one of the four colleges that make up the University of Baltimore, which is part of the University System of Maryland. The UBalt School of Law is one of only two law schools i ...
. He was the chairman of the Constitution Party of Maryland and a member of the executive committee of the Constitution Party National Committee. In 2014, he became a
Republican and won election to the County Council of
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...
, representing District 5.
2004 presidential campaign
In the
2004 United States presidential election, he was the
Constitution Party's candidate. His campaign slogan was "God, Family, Republic" and featured heavily
Christian and
socially conservative themes. His running mate was
independent Baptist
Independent Baptist churches (some also called Independent Fundamental Baptist or IFB) are Christian congregations, generally holding to conservative (primarily fundamentalist) Baptist beliefs. Although some Independent Baptist churches refuse a ...
minister
Chuck Baldwin. Peroutka gained support from many
paleoconservatives, and was endorsed by the America First Party and
Alaskan Independence Party. Peroutka was also endorsed by the
League of the South and supported by a group called "Southerners for Peroutka". Peroutka accepted the endorsement from the League at their 2004 national convention. Far-right radio host and conspiracy theorist
Alex Jones stated that he would be voting for Peroutka.
Peroutka appeared on the far-right radio show ''
The Political Cesspool
''The Political Cesspool'' is a weekly far-right talk radio show founded by Tennessean political activist James Edwards and syndicated by the organizations Liberty News Radio Network and Accent Radio Network in the United States. First broad ...
'' to promote his campaign, describing it as a "Christian/Constitutionalist radio program" and "a great blessing to our cause". Paleoconservative political commentator
Pat Buchanan stated on the September 7, 2004, edition of ''
Hardball with Chris Matthews'', that he was considering voting for Peroutka. The November 8, 2004, issue of ''
The American Conservative
''The American Conservative'' (''TAC'') is a magazine published by the American Ideas Institute which was founded in 2002. Originally published twice a month, it was reduced to monthly publication in August 2009, and since February 2013, it has ...
'' contained endorsements by
Taki Theodoracopulos
Panagiotis "Taki" Theodoracopulos (; el, text=Παναγιώτης "Τάκης" Θεοδωρακόπουλος ; born 11 August 1936) is a Greek journalist and writer. He has lived in New York City, London, and Gstaad.
Early life and education ...
and
Howard Phillips (the latter having founded the party Peroutka represented). Peroutka received just over 0.01% of the national popular vote, finishing fifth nationally with almost 150,000 votes. This was a similar showing to previous Constitution Party candidacies of Howard Phillips, and made the party the only third party to increase its share of the vote in 2004.
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia ...
Republican politician
Matt Bevin's support for Peroutka's candidacy was used in a 2013
attack ad by opponent
Mitch McConnell.
Political positions
Peroutka is a
Christian nationalist who holds views outside the mainstream of U.S. political discourse, even within the modern Republican Party.
He said that government officials must "take a biblical worldview and apply it to civil law and government" and referred to the principle of
separation of church and state
The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular s ...
as a "great lie."
Peroutka views public schools as a Communist plot;
he supports
homeschooling and opposes government funding for education, stating that it is "the 10th plank in the Communist Manifesto."
He rejects laws and constitutional protections protecting abortion and
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
.
In 2006, he voted in favor of disaffiliating the
Independent American Party of Nevada from the Constitution Party due to their allowance for abortion in certain circumstances. In 2012, the ''
Montgomery Advertiser
The ''Montgomery Advertiser'' is a daily newspaper and news website located in Montgomery, Alabama. It was founded in 1829.
History
The newspaper began publication in 1829 as ''The Planter's Gazette.'' Its first editor was Moseley Baker. I ...
'' reported that Peroutka was the single-largest donor to
Roy Moore's 2012 campaign for the Alabama Supreme Court, having contributed $50,000 of the total $78,000 received by Moore until December 31, 2011.
Peroutka is a former board member of the
League of the South, a
neo-Confederate organization that is
classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a
hate group
A hate group is a social group that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other designated sector of society. Acc ...
.
He was a member of the group's board of directors from 2012 to 2014.
In 2012, the
Human Rights Campaign called Peroutka an "active white supremacist and secessionist sympathizer" due to his ties to the League. Peroutka told ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...
'' that he "continues to be a proud member of the League of the South," since it "has a belief that the central government is too large, too spend-thrift and too out-of-control," but he called HRC's characterization of him as a white-supremacist sympathizer "absurd" and "not at all true." In 2012, a video showed Peroutka asking a group to stand for the national anthem, and then leading them in the ''de facto''
Confederate anthem, "
Dixie
Dixie, also known as Dixieland or Dixie's Land, is a nickname for all or part of the Southern United States. While there is no official definition of this region (and the included areas shift over the years), or the extent of the area it cove ...
". On 2013, he stated that, "all elevation or denigration of individuals or groups based on skin color is immoral and shameful." In October 2014, during his campaign for County Council, Peroutka announced that he had resigned from the board of directors of the League of the South and was no longer a member after having discovered statements made by members that were "contrary to
isbeliefs". He declined to disavow the group during his 2022 campaign for Maryland attorney general.
Split from the National Constitution Party
In 2006, the Maryland Constitution Party disaffiliated from the national party along with other state parties following a schism at the national party's 2006 convention, in which it failed to disaffiliate the Nevada party despite its chairman and gubernatorial candidate's support for legal abortion in some cases. Peroutka stated, "At this point I could not, in good faith, represent the Constitution Party nor endorse any of its candidates. Unless serious changes occur, I could not run for President in 2008."
Peroutka's supporters, however, collected enough signatures to get his name approved as a
write-in candidate in Georgia for the 2008 presidential election.
Republican Party
Election in 2014 to Anne Arundel County Council
In February 2014, Peroutka switched his voter registration from Constitution Party to
Republican and filed to run for a seat on the Anne Arundel County Council as well as a seat on the county's Republican Central Committee. Peroutka won the seat on the Central Committee, becoming an official representative of the Republican Party in
Anne Arundel County, Maryland
Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...
. Peroutka also won the primary election for county council from District 5 on June 24, defeating a number of other Republican candidates, including the incumbent councilman Dick Ladd. He won by 38 votes over Maureen Carr-York to become the Republican nominee in the November 2014 general election. Peroutka won in the general election with 53 percent of the vote and a margin of victory of nearly 1,900 votes over his Democratic opponent.
His district covered
Severna Park,
Millersville,
Arnold
Arnold may refer to:
People
* Arnold (given name), a masculine given name
* Arnold (surname), a German and English surname
Places Australia
* Arnold, Victoria, a small town in the Australian state of Victoria
Canada
* Arnold, Nova Scotia
U ...
, and
Broadneck.
Peroutka, along with the rest of the council, was sworn in on December 1, 2014.
Loss in 2018 re-election campaign
Running for reelection from District 5 in June 2018, Peroutka lost the Republican primary to candidate Amanda Fiedler, 53 percent to 47 percent.
2022 campaign for Attorney General of Maryland
In February 2022, Peroutka filed to run for
Attorney General of Maryland.
He ran on the slogan "Liberty forever, Mandates never!" and a platform of opposing
COVID-19 restrictions, fear of crime and immigration, election integrity, and opposition to abortion. Peroutka ran on a platform in which he prioritize what he called "God-given, constitutionally-protected rights" over state and federal laws, specifically those on
abortion
Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...
and
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
. He also pledged to take legal action against Governor
Larry Hogan and local health officers for actions they took to slow the spread of COVID-19.
He won the Republican nomination, defeating Jim Shalleck, a former state and federal prosecutor, in the Republican
primary election.
Peroutka's victory made him one of several extremist candidates nominated by the Republican Party in 2022.
Peroutka won the Republican primary on July 19, 2022, with 55.0 percent of the vote over his challenger Jim Shalleck. During the general election, he said that he would accept the results of the election if they "appear to be lawful and legal", but supported legal efforts by state delegate and Republican
nominee for governor Dan Cox
Daniel Lewis Cox (born August 9, 1974) is an American far-right politician. He is a Republican who represents the fourth district in the Maryland House of Delegates. He was also the secretary of the Frederick County Republican Central Committ ...
to block the counting of mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day.
Peroutka was defeated by Democratic
U.S. Representative Anthony Brown in the general election on November 8, 2022. On November 10, Peroutka said he would not concede the election to Brown, claiming without evidence that "many odd and suspicious incidents were reported by poll watchers, and more reports are being gathered today."
Support for creationism
In May 2014, Peroutka, acting on behalf of the Elizabeth Streb Peroutka foundation, a charity he and his brother Stephen established and named after their mother, donated an
Allosaurus skeleton to the
Creation Museum,
a 70,000-square-foot museum in
Petersburg, Kentucky, that promotes the disproven
young Earth creationist
Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespre ...
explanation of the origins of the universe put forth in
Biblical literalism.
References
External links
Campaign website*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peroutka, Michael
1952 births
21st-century American politicians
American anti–Iraq War activists
American white nationalists
American Christian Young Earth creationists
Candidates in the 2004 United States presidential election
Constitution Party (United States) presidential nominees
Dominion theology
Far-right politicians in the United States
Lawyers from Baltimore
League of the South
Living people
Loyola University Maryland alumni
Maryland Constitutionalists
Maryland Republicans
Southern United States independence activists
University of Baltimore alumni